Two Exciting New Stars On The Scene

November 15, 2012

I regularly leave the house so you don’t have to, and in doing so on Tuesday I encountered two bright lights sparkling up the NYC night.

At Codependent Tuesdays at the gay bar Therapy, Natalie Joy Johnson does a weekly show that is zingy and throaty and campy and fun.

Natalie–who did the tour of Legally Blonde–is sort of Bette Midler meets Courtney Love, capable of belting an old-school ballad, while also quite adept at trotting out new radio hits and making them her own, especially as she tosses in A Chorus Line choreography and Gypsy riffs.

She’s quite a package, and she even had a golden wheelchair (shades of Ms. Midler) to sit on when a song called for some glamorous reclining.

The same night, I went to Posh Bar & Lounge, where Tina Burner was hosting the TRANIMAL all-stars drag competition.

That night, returning champ Penny New Chrysler and LeeLee Heavenly gave it their all, but lost to Kiki Darling, a sensational, whirling, high-kicking bundle of confident energy.

Kiki may unknowingly be carrying on the spirit of the late Sahara Davenport.

Whatever she’s doing, it’s so fun you want to shriek, “Let’s have a Kiki!”

"More than any other contemporary African-American athlete, his ability to thrive in the pressure cooker of corporate America, while never making any embarrass­ing 'I’m not black, I’m universal' comments or selling his soul rather than just his visage, makes him a role model"

“Though his work for human rights is unassailable, the books grow worse and worse, the tales of his derring-do more and more farfetched. Finally, without at all forgiving him his lies, one feels sorry for Kosinski.”